Sentinel 1A

Sentinel-1, the first in the family of Copernicus satellites

The Sentinel-1 mission is a polar-orbiting satellite system for the continuation of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) operational applications.

Sentinel-1 is a C-band imaging radar mission to provide an all-weather day-and-night supply of imagery for Copernicus user services. The first Sentinel-1 satellite will be ready for launch in spring 2014 and will be followed by the second satellite a few years later.

Dedicated to the Copernicus initiative, Sentinel-1 will ensure the continuity of C-band SAR data, building on ESA’s and Canada’s heritage SAR systems on ERS-1, ERS-2, Envisat and Radarsat.

The mission

The Sentinel-1 Mission Operations Centre (MOC) is located at ESA's ESOC establishment in Darmstadt, Germany.

The Flight Control Team

To be updated

Mission operations overview

To be updated

To be updated

Mission control system

Sentinel-1 uses ESA's SCOS-2000® mission control system.

Originally developed to support ESA missions, the software is now being promoted as a product and licenses are being granted in the fields of space research and technology. SCOS-2000® is part of the ESA Ground Operation System (EGOS) project, aimed at standardising the infrastructure used throughout European Space Agency ground segments with the goal of improving reliability, cost effectiveness and interoperability.

The ground stations

A network of X-band core ground stations located in Matera, Italy, Maspalomas, Spain and Svalbard, Norway, are responsible for data acquisition and near real-time processing.